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The walls were beautiful and the reefs nice. I expected to be really blown away by the diving here and I was not. The dive staff are competent and friendly. They offer briefings before each dive which are scheduled 3 x daily. You can do the shore dive at the dock which I did and recommend. We dove it at dusk and it was fantastic. We saw alot of critters in about 15-20 feet of water. We never saw any hammerheads at all. Every morning the dive master takes you out into the blue to look for them, its the ocean so nothing is guaranteed. We had Amanda as our dive master and I felt she rushed the dives a bit. We saw some eels (not a lot), big schools of barracuda, pygmy seahorses, lionfish, turtles.

The meals are buffet style with lots of it. Although by the end I was sick of it. Lots of rice and Chinese dishes. The rooms are average. There is a TV in each room. One big complaint I had was that we had no hot water in our room and after some rainy days of diving with no sun, you just really wanted to take a hot shower to warm up again. And that just didn't happen.

I think if you live in that part of the world (I do not) the diving and traveling is okay but if you live far away like I do (East coast of the US) its not that impressive to come so far.

Stayed: July 2012, travelled with friends

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Ask ScubaChickJamie about Layang Layang Island Resort

4 Thank ScubaChickJamie

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Resort: I would describe it as a resort with 3 star rooms (clean but simple and a bit outdated), 4 star facilities (nice pool, good food, 3 meals a day with good choice of Western and Asian, 2 snacks in between, nice bar with books and tv) and 5 + star people (always friendly and cheerful)

Diving: magnificent drop offs and walldiving, abundant fish and corals, and a good chance to see mantas, hammerheads, sharks, pygmee seahorse, ornate pipefish etc etc. No guarantees though, so if you're unlucky you may spend all your dives waiting the first 10 to 15 minutes out in the blue at 25m for nothing. Just to manage your expectations. However, the remainder of each dive is near the wall or reef and that's guaranteed to be fantastic every time. We saw hammerheads twice in 18 dives, partly because we had rough weather first few days. Boat rides all 15 minutes max. Diving not very difficult, these are currents and deep drop offs but not very hard as long as you have decent buyoancy control. Dive master Allister very professional, good briefing and a good eye for spotting fish, as well as small "stuff".

Note: apart from diving there is nothing to do on this remote island. It is a great escape though and diving is fantastic!

Stayed: June 2012

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Ask Steve123453 about Layang Layang Island Resort

Thank Steve123453

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

If you are expecting 5 star resort forget it and I would bet you haven't been diving that long if you do. Dive resorts are just that, you go there for the diving and that's what we did.

Although this resort completely stuffed up our dive holiday the dive staff made up for it once we finally made it t the island.

In between us booking our holiday and actually turning up for our scheduled flight via our itinerary, Layang Layang decided to change from flying a few small planes per day to the Island just to one larger plane early in the morning, a few days per week.

Problem was, they didn't communicate this to our booking agent nor us, even though they had more than adequate contact details and communication channels. Very disappointing when you have a limited time away and that time was specifically to travel at a certain time of the year to dive specifically on this Island. NOT good enough!!

That said the dive sites and the marine life was great and we loved the time we did have there.

We went specifically in May to see Hammerheads. The only one we saw was the one the staff made from towels put on one of the beds in our rooms!

This didn't bother me as I am a fairly new diver, however, for the other divers, a few with 5.000+ dives under their belt found it was a tad disappointing.

Apparently the day after we left at 43 meters 7-8 hammerheads were spotted. If you are prepared to dive deep (around 40m) and swim 20+ meters out into the blue off the wall you may see them. Most of our group did this on a couple of occasions at various times of the day and saw...nothing...

Food was pretty average, accommodation the same, however, that's not what you are there to see and enjoy.

Sunsets spectacular over water, beautiful clear turquoise water in the lagoon, diving good but have seen better in other parts of the world. Dive staff are OUTSTANDING!!!

Would we return here to dive?...probably not.

Room Tip: Not sure you would have a choice and if you did, the walls are very thin!

See more room tips

Stayed: May 2012, travelled with friends

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Ask AJfromOZ about Layang Layang Island Resort

4 Thank AJfromOZ

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Went to scuba dive for 5 days in April 2012 with some friends. It's a wonderful place to dive but don't expect much of the rooms. They're dated and the thin walls make it sometimes hard to get sleep so consider bringing your own ear plugs.

On the good note, the diving was excellent. Hammerheads, black and white tip reef sharks, grey reef sharks, sea turtles, mantas, you name it. The people at the diving center and the resort are very friendly and make you feel very welcome.

There's not much else to see there but with four dives a day, I didn't need any additional activities to keep me happy. If you're into scuba diving, I would certainly recommend going to Layang Layang, otherwise, don't bother.

Stayed: April 2012, travelled with friends

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Ask hexaeder about Layang Layang Island Resort

Thank hexaeder

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

We spent almost two weeks in this resort and I did not miss even one dive. This island is one of best place for dive holidays. May be rooms are not very new but it was not important for us there. Diving is excellent there. All dive sites are not far from island (from 10 to 25 minuts) and we had 3 - 4 dives each day. There is very reach underwater life even without hammerheads. Restaurant has good selection between asian and european food. Resort has enough big pool and friendly staff. Dive shop has very good management and diving was organized very punctual. There are no Nitrox but we had very often dives with deep about 40 meters.But if you are going to spend you holidays in Layang Layang then it's necessary to remember that this resort is good for divers but it's not interesting for non-divers. There even no any entrance to water except pool. Snoorkling is also possible from boat only. Big part of island is closed for walking.

Stayed: March 2012, travelled as a couple

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Ask Igor N about Layang Layang Island Resort

1 Thank Igor N

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Layang Layang Island Resort Sdn Bhd is an exclusive resort that dominates the Layang Layang island - an oceanic atoll of Spratly Islands situated approximately 300km northwest of Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia. Fondly known as "The Jewel of the Borneo Banks", it is truly a diver's paradise. As many as 14 coral reefs have formed here, creating a breathtaking underwater scenery. The dive sites are well known for the intriguing hammerhead sharks and pygmy seahorses among other rare creatures. An hour's flight north of Kota Kinabalu, the island on which Layang Layang Island Resort Sdn Bhd nestled lies in 2,000m of ocean and due partly to the depth, this atoll has become famous for sightings of large pelagic species and for wall diving. Layang Layang Island Resort Sdn Bhd is the only resort on the island besides a Royal Malaysia Navy base. The resort, designed to look like the traditional Long House comprises 86 cosy rooms, restaurant and bar, outdoor swimming pool, Dive Center with certified diving instructors and a variety of diving courses among other facilities for modern comforts. Come for the exclusive and intriguing diving experience at this remote destination out of the world, where rare and uncommon underwater creature awaits you!...more less

Also Known As:

Avillion Layang Layang Island Hotel Layang Layang

Layang Island Hotel

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